Today we are reading from 1 John, chapter 4, and verse 7, and we will be reading down through the 5th chapter and verse 4. As we continue the exposition of the book of 1 John, this will be the seventh message in the series, and we are looking at the theme today, Loving as God Loves. Would you join with me in the reading of God's word? Ready? Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God, and everyone that loves is born of God and knows God. He that loves not knows not God, for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us. and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love, and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect. that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he that loves not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, that he who loves God loves his brother also. Whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone that loves him that begat loves him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith." I wonder how many times the word love came up in our reading this morning. I neglected to count it in my study and it hadn't even crossed my mind, but it seemed like in reading it aloud that every other word was love. This is why John is known as the apostle of love. Well, so far in our pilgrimage through this little epistle, John has presented two rounds of tests designed to identify a true Christian, and he has twice presented these three tests in order. First, he has presented the test of obedience, chapter 2, verses 3 through 6, chapter 2, verse 28 through the third chapter, verse 10. Second, he has covered the test of love. chapter 2, verses 7-11, and chapter 3, verses 11-18. And then third, he has presented the test of doctrine or belief in chapter 2, verses 18-27, and chapter 4, verses 1-6. In each new presentation, though, John has both expanded and deepened the understanding of the test to identify a true Christian. And along with the test, he has called for his readers to apply these truths to their lives. And in doing so, he has exposed the false teachers who have left the Church as being counterfeit Christians. For those that are new this morning, there has been a group which has left the early apostolic churches, and they have formed a rival church, claiming to represent true Christianity. But they have rejected apostolic Christianity, and these are the opponents to whom John is addressing throughout his little epistle. Now John is ready to present the third round, or the spiral of test, only this time he changes the order. Instead of beginning with the test of obedience, he turns again to the test of love in chapter 4, verses 7 through 11. And then in verses 12 through 21, he combines the test of love and doctrine. And then in the fifth chapter, verses 1 through 21, he weaves all three tests together to show their unity. As we begin our exposition this morning, let's look at verses 7 and 8 and look at love's Where does love originate? Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loves is born of God and knows God, and he that loves not knows not God, for God is love. John begins his discourse here by giving an appeal to his readers to love one another, namely the brethren. Throughout the epistle, the Brethren are always those which identify with the Christian community, not the neighbors that are unsaved. Why should Christians exhibit such love? Because the kind of love being discussed finds its origin in God and comes only from God. In verse 7, love is, or can be translated, love comes from God. If God is the source, then, of real love, then all who manifest love in their lives must first have received it from God. Is that not logical? Love is not an innate virtue in us, fallen in Adam. Neither is it a learned behavior. You can't go to school and learn love. It is acquired from our being born of God and reveals that we have come to know God in an intimate relationship. And the opposite is also true. Whoever does not find love for Christian brethren does not know God. And in John's context, it is apostolic Christian brethren, those who believe the Bible. I say it again, whoever does not find a love for Christians, apostolic Christians, does not know God. That's John's conclusion. Now, why is this the case? Because God in his very nature is love. And if God be loving in his very nature, our failure to love can mean only that we have no true knowledge of God, that we have not been born of him, and that we do not have his nature. He is love. His nature is loving, and love can never be absent from his being or any of his actions. But when God, when John says that God is love, It is not to be taken that love is a complete description of God. This is what our modern liberals do. John has also described God as light, chapter 1 and verse 5. God is righteous, chapter 2 and verse 29. And then in his gospel he has recorded that God is a spirit, chapter 4 and verse 24. So while love describes God, it is not the total description of God. And thus it has been correctly said that love does not define God, but it is God which defines love. Now, if we are to love as God loves, then how does God love? And John reveals to us here that he loves indeed and not in word only. God's love is explained not in an abstract theory, but it is explained by John by what God did. He sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him, and he sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now, here we are given two factors which define the nature of God's love. Now, let's don't forget we're learning to love as God loves. Here are two defining factors which define the love of God. One, it is a self-sacrificing love. God's love costs God his most prized possession. His only begotten Son. The expression only begotten means unique, one of a kind. It describes the unity and the relationship that are shared by the Father and the Son. The fact that God sent His Son into the world is one evidence of the deity. of Jesus Christ. Christ was the preexistent Son. He did not become His Son at His birth. We have a new baby in our midst this morning. It's always a great joy as a pastor to see new ones come into the family. Babies are not sent into the world. They're born into the world. As the perfect man, Jesus was born into this world. But as the eternal Son, he was sent into the world. Now, the second factor which defines God's love is that it is an action done for the benefit of others. The first factor, it involved sacrifice of oneself. The second factor, it was done for the benefit of others. If we are to love as God loves, then we are learning how God loves. He became the propitiation for our sins. The Greeks understood the word propitiation to mean to please the gods, to obtain their favor and goodwill. We have already defined it in the earlier messages as to render merciful or to bring about the favor of God. Now, why did the Greeks view this word propitiation as obtaining the favor and goodwill of their deities. Because in most of the world's religions, there exists within the hearts of all people a feeling of guilt over the awareness of their sin. And their sin has brought about the wrath and displeasure of the deities involved. And thus, this deity or God which they worship can become favorable toward them through human deeds and offerings. But in the biblical sense, it is God, not man, who offers the propitiation. To propitiate God is to avert his wrath and to find his favor, but it is not you and I who make that offering. It is God himself who is angry with the wicked, who averts his own wrath and the punishment that we deserve by sending his Son to be the source of mercy for us. Averting the wrath of God can only take place through the substitutionary punishment of the atonement, or covering as the word means, is effected when an innocent life is given in exchange for a guilty life. And as a consequence of the sacrifice, the guilty party is freed from guilt since payment has been made to God by the offering. How can God who is holy, forgive sinners who are wicked, and be consistent with his own holy nature? Only the gospel can answer that. It is seen in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus there bore the punishment for sin and met the demands of God's holy law. But there in that cross God reveals his love and makes it justly possible for men to be forgiven by grace through faith. So it is not man's love for God that initiates the reconciliation, but it is God's love for man as seen in the giving of his Son as an offering for sin. We didn't love him. He first loved us. Verse 11, Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. Let's reflect on love's obligation now. We've seen the source of it. It originates in God, self-sacrificing for the benefit of others. John understood that Christian love can be given in return to God only when it has first been received from God. Also, it is God's love for us that defines what true love requires, which is, now hold on, the willing commitment to be ready to sacrifice one's most prized possession for the benefit and gain of another. If we are to love as God loves, he gave his most prized possession for others. We are called upon to love as he loves. That means that whatever you prize the most, if God's providential decree requires it, you must be willing and ready to take that Isaac up to that mountain range and offer the most prized possession that you have, if God so requires. Now usually those requirements are made not by God asking us, but by His providence bringing it to pass and our submitting unto it. This is how then we ought to love our brethren. The word ought here in the Greek is a strong word. denoting a moral obligation. We ought to love others not in the sense that we should do it, but that in light of Christ's sacrifice, we are duty-bound and obligated to love others in the same way. John has used this word twice. in the second chapter in verse 6 and in chapter 3 in verse 16 where he says, we ought. Again, I repeat, it's just not, well, it would be a good idea, we should do it. No, it's a strong word. It carries with it an obligation to duty. Verses 12 through 16, we progress from love's source to love's obligation. Now, let's look at love's indwelling. No man has seen God at any time, but if we love one another, God dwells in us and his love is perfected in us. Hereby, or by this means, know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he has given us of his Spirit. We have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him and he in God. We have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love, and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. At this point, John inserts the well-known fact that God is invisible and that no one has ever seen his essence. This statement, though, has puzzled many Bible students. Why does he insert it? Here at this point, this has not been his subject, it seems. But it actually sets the stage for a discussion of the way in which God may actually be known or understood. The majority of the Bible commentators believe that John is referring to the false teachers who are making claims that they have seen God in special visions which imparted a special knowledge which others did not possess. And John denies that this is the way that God is known. You do not have to see God in order to know him. Rather than revealing himself to a select few, God reveals himself to those who confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and show their faith by loving others with the sacrificial love with which they have been loved by God. That's how you know that you know God. Well, how then can a person know that the invisible God is present in his life. How do you know that? John answers in verse 13, he has given us of his Spirit. But I would ask another question, but since the Spirit is also invisible, we're back to question one. How can we know that he dwells within us? Paul would answer the question in this light in Galatians 5.22 that the proof of the Spirit's indwelling is seen in the fruit of the Spirit. And the first manifestation of the Spirit's fruit is what? Love. So I don't have to see the invisible God before I know that I'm one of His. He says, I'll put my spirit within them. And when the spirit is there, they will manifest love. If I see love within my life, and I know it hasn't originated within me, then I know it must have come from outside of me through the new birth. In Hebrews 11, 27, it is said that by faith Moses saw him who was what? He saw him who is invisible. Is that not an oxymoron? The word saw means he understood him who is the invisible one. Moses knew the invisible God. How shall men know that the invisible God is present in their life? Jesus answers in these words, John 13.35, by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if you have love one to another. This is how men see the invisible God and know that a person is attached to Christ when they love apostolic Christians. Now, that's why I'm particularly laboring through this series to put that adjective in front of the word Christian. Because not everybody who professes to be a Christian is a Christian. And those who do not love apostolic Christianity will separate themselves from apostolic Christianity. This is why the liberals want nothing to do with conservative, Bible-believing Christianity. The world will not believe that the invisible God loves sinners until they see his love in sending his Son to die for them, and in seeing his love at work in the lives of his children. Sacrificial love. in giving of ourselves to meet the needs of others is the evidence of God's indwelling presence in our lives and of our dwelling in him." Verse 13. Now, while the word Trinity is never used in the Bible, the concept is there. It seems quite clear if you will look at verses 13 and 14. that John accepted the doctrine of the Trinity and understood it well enough to feel that he did not need to explain it to his readers. Notice in verses 13 and 14, we have the Father sending or giving both the Son and the Spirit. So we have the concept of the triune Godhead there. while we have not the theological expression, Trinity. Verses 17 through 21, we now come to love's perfecting, the perfection of love. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us. If a man says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? You see, here he is tying that expression in back there to no man has seen God. And this commandment hath we from him, that he who loves God loves his brother also." Now, John has defined authentic Christianity or Christian love as being self-giving in contrast to self-receiving. I think I used the illustration here a few weeks ago, I love ice cream. That doesn't mean I give myself for ice cream. But I love what ice cream does for me." That's a self-receiving love, but that's not the love with which God loves. His love, as we have seen, is self-giving. This divine love looks out to the interest of others as opposed to one's own self-interest. John affirmed back in verse 12 that when a person understands this in a saving way, that God dwells in him. And God's love is perfected in him. The idea of God's indwelling in the believer was then expanded in verses 13 through 16, which we have just covered. Now in verses 17 through 21, John elaborates on the idea of perfected love. Previously though, note, it was God's love that was perfected in us. Now in verse 17, it is our love that is perfect. A lot of interesting teachings have arisen over the idea of perfection. Whole denominations have been established upon the idea of sinless perfection. We have, I believe, shown that John does not teach sinless perfection. in his little epistle. But here the word in the original made perfect describes that, quote, which is complete or fully developed, that which has reached its intended goal. The mutual indwelling of God and the believer, in verse 16, is the means for God's love to reach a state of completion. I'm going to run that bias again. The mutual indwelling of God and the believer, back in verse 16, is the means for God's love to reach a state of completion. It has achieved its goal. For God and man to once again be reconciled as he was in the Garden of Eden. But when the believer now loves as God loves, his love has been perfected or made complete. In other words, it has reached its design goal. God's goal for me is to love as he loves, and when I understand what that is and practice Love has achieved its completed goal. It has been made perfect. In other words, I am now loving others as God loves others. In his famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught that his disciples' love was to be extended even to their enemies who opposed him. And in doing so, I'd like for you to be turning over to Matthew chapter 5, verses 46 through 48. In describing this love, this aspect of love, Jesus describes the level of love which operates in the lives of lost men, of people who do not know God. In Matthew 5, verses 46 through 48. If you have that, why, I'll give you time to locate it. Jesus said, for if you love them which love you, what reward have you? What's the big deal? Do not even the publicans, meaning the tax collectors, do the same? He's but saying that sinful people love other sinful people because they know that they can show love if they can be guaranteed they're going to get some love in return. What's the big deal with that? And if you salute or greet your brethren only, what do you more than others? Now watch. Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is I think we're about to get somewhere. How is God perfect? He is perfect in love. He's demonstrated it by giving his most prized possession for the benefit of others. When God generated life into Adam. Now, follow me. He gave Adam the capacity to love on a divine level of love like himself, like God, which acts in a self-giving mode. But when Adam fell into sin, he became self-centered and lost his God-given ability to love. Now he and his descendants can love only on a human level, which acts in a receiving mode. This love can only give if it knows it can expect to receive something in return. And thus it can only love when it knows it will be loved in return. That is human love. That is, Sister Dorothy, imperfected love. The Fall has ruined man's ability to love as he was created with a capacity to love. One of God's goals in regenerating human beings is to restore that divine level of love in the new creature to enable them or him to understand and practice the love with which Jesus loves. Since this is God's goal for the believer, The believer, then, is to desire and seek after the completion of God's goal for him. So when Jesus said, Be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect, he is but saying, Love others in the mode of self-giving as God himself loves. Stop loving as human sinners do, as the tax collectors do. If that's the only level of love you ever love on, you're not a Christian. Because this is the way sinners love. But new creatures love in a divine way. The capacity to love as God loves is imparted to the believer in the new birth and is enlarged in the believer as the believer grows in the grace and knowledge of Christ and is changed from one degree of glory into another. Until finally, one day when we stand completed in Christ, in our sanctification, and we are glorified, we will be able to love as Jesus loves. But that doesn't mean that that has not already begun. For every person who is born of God has this capacity imparted unto them. Otherwise, what's the big deal about the new birth? If the new birth does not do any more than what the tax collectors can do, what's the big deal with being a Christian? John now lists two benefits which occur when God's love is perfected in us, when we now see that we are to love others with a sacrificial love, not looking for something in return. There are some benefits which are accrued to the believer from this understanding. One, perfect love, or this self-giving love, dispels fear of punishment in the day of judgment, verses 17 and 18. It casts out the fear of being condemned and going to hell. And secondly, this perfected love Note that verses 19-21 dispels hatred of Christians. Unbelievers cannot love Christians. Since the believer now living in this present world is already loving as Christ is loving In his intercessory work, the believer is in the same position as Christ is before the Father. Beloved, we have been made accepted in the what? In the Beloved. I do not have to wait until the day of judgment. I am here and now as Christ is in glory. A principle has been set up within me. And he which hath begun a good work will perform it," or complete it, until the day of redemption. The believer is here and now God's Son and the object of God's love. Think of it. Chapter 3, verse 1 again. Remember when we were back there? Behold what manner of love. The Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons or the children of God. What a title. He has one and only unique Son, but He has many other sons that He's going to bring unto glory. What a demonstration of love. do not need to be tormented with fear of punishment or condemnation by their father. Sound pretty good, Charlie? Sons do not need to be tormented by punishment or fear of punishment or condemnation by their father. If we are as Jesus is now, accepted, it dispels fear of a coming day of judgment. Fear and love cannot coexist, John says. This is why a person who stands in a love relationship with God can look forward with confidence toward the day of judgment without fear and torment. Punishment is the portion of those who through their disobedience are condemned already, John 3.18. All such torment and punishment is dispelled by the perfect love in which the members of God's family live. The second benefit from perfected love is the dispelling of hatred toward Christians. Remember what we defined hatred as being? Not necessarily an angry feeling of malice, but just an ignoring of the needs of others. We've covered that already. The world hates Christ. It hates God. It hates his people. The world does not love the Christian nor the way the Christian lives. The believer is now enabled to love because he understands that God has first loved him. So Christian love is then defined not on a human level of self-receiving, but on a divine level of self-giving. And the world doesn't want that principle. In taking the initiative in loving us, God not only showed us how to love one another, chapter 3 and verse 11, but he imparted the desire and the power to follow his example through the new birth. Now John takes another jab at his opponents. For the fourth time he calls them liars. John had never read Dale Carnegie's book on how to win friends and influence people. Chapter 1, verse 10. Chapter 2, verse 4. Chapter 2, verse 22. And chapter 4, verse 20. Four times he's called his opponents liars. And he'll do so again in chapter 5 and verse 10. Look at that. We'll cover that this afternoon. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a what? A liar. Five times he will refer to his opponents as liars for not believing the record or the testimony of the gospel. His opponents have claimed to have seen God taken up into the heavens. And they are claiming to love God. But this knowledge which they have acquired was for purposes of self-gratification only. It was to puff up their pride with knowledge. And in doing so, it separated them from the apostolic brethren, the true believers. They withdrew from the church, went down the road and started another one. One, John says, cannot be loving an invisible God while hating a visible brother. They didn't love John. They didn't love John's disciples. And John says they do not love God. They're lying. They're deceived. Love for God and love for one's brother in Christ go together. Now quickly, chapter 5, verses 1 through 4. John now begins to weave into a unit all three of the tests of faith, love, and obedience. Whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone that loves him that begat loves him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous, for whatsoever is born of God And this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our what? Our faith. We have a song that we sing, don't we? Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. Now, in chapter 5, John starts concluding his discussion of the three tests of the authentic test of Christianity. He does so by affirming that it is necessary for the believer to manifest all three signs of the presence of true Christianity. a right belief for the doctrinal or faith test, a right love for the social test, and right actions for the moral obedience test. He shows how these three tests are closely related and interwoven into an essential unit And he concentrates on the three essential ingredients which comprise a saving knowledge of God in eternal life. They are, in proper order, faith, love, and obedience. All three must be present to comprise a true, authentic Christian. You can't have one or two. I miss the other. Faith, love, and obedience are all found in a true Christian. In verse 1, he begins by affirming that everybody who holds the true confession of faith about Jesus has been born of God. That's just a fact. Now, follow me. Faith is thus, Bill, the sign or the evidence of the new birth. and not the means of the new birth, as Arminianism or free will theology teaches. Faith is the evidence of one having been born of God. The tenses in the Greek action verbs affirm this. The word believes is present tense. signifying a present and ongoing activity or belief. And the verb is born is in perfect tense, meaning has been born in the past and the results are remaining. What's that mean? It means that ongoing faith is the result of the new birth, not the cause or the means of it. How then does one know if they have been born again or not? Nicodemus, you must be born again. How will I know it? You can get a certain evangelist book he has out on how to be born again, but that won't do you any good because it messes up what John is saying right here. Faith is not the means which leads to the new birth. It's the evidence of God's activity having occurred. I ask the question again, how does one know if they have been born again or not? Since this is a life and death, heaven and hell issue, then it ought to be a question that ought to concern all of us. Now then, not by looking for some internal religious experience. You don't walk an aisle and pray a prayer in order to be born again and have a religious experience. That approach will lead to much confusion in the life of an individual. We can know it has happened when, Brother Paul, we begin to realize that we believe that Jesus is the Christ sent into the world to be our Savior. Do you believe that? Do you realize that you have come? I believe that. It's the evidence that God has granted a new birth. Then rather than looking for goose bumps and shaky feelings and things running up and down your spine, stop and think. Do I believe that God sent His Son into the world to be my Savior? I do. You've been born again. And thus, we do not believe in order to be born of God, but we are begotten by God in order to enable us to believe. Now, this should not surprise us. I know this is a battleground. between Calvinists and Armenians. It's a battleground here. But what I've just affirmed should not surprise us. Why? Incidentally, I believe John was a Calvinist, not an Armenian. You say, boy, that's a big statement to come out of your mouth. Prove it. All right, I will. I'm from Missouri. You've got to show me. Hang on. This idea that faith is the result of the new birth, not the cause of us, that should not surprise a person, because our ability to love others is also an evidence of the new birth. That's what John has just said. He's affirmed this back in chapter 4, verse 7. Look back there. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is what? is born of God and knoweth God. Notice the expression, everyone that loves is born of God. I have never met a Christian, I'm sure there's some out there, but I have never met one in forty years of pastoring who has asserted that one must love others in order to be born of God. Have you? No. It is generally agreed by Christians that love is the fruit of the Spirit, not the prerequisite for obtaining the Spirit. Likewise with faith. Faith is not the prerequisite for the new birth. It's the fruit of the new birth. Move on. Again, John has taught us that doing what is right indicates that a person has been born of God. Look back in chapter 2 and verse 29. Chapter 2 and verse 29. There he says, everyone who does righteousness is what? Is born of Him. See that? Everyone who does right is born of Him. Now, do you know any Christian to teach that if a sinner will just start living right, then God will regenerate him? You know any Christian that teaches that? Of course not. Look also in chapter 3 and verse 9. John says that whoever is born of God does not commit sin. Is John then saying that when a person ceases to practice sin, then God will grant him spiritual life? I think not. Even now in this present section, chapter 5, verse 4, John states that whosoever is born of God overcomes the world. Is God saying to you, or to the lost person rather out here who is dead in trespasses and sin, that if you will do your part and overcome your love of the world, then I will do my part and give you spiritual life?" I submit to ask these questions is to answer them. All of these are evidences of God's activity in working in us these actions which are traceable to the new birth. They are not the means. by which the new birth is brought about. See, I say John's a Calvinist. He's not an Arminian. And yet we have a lot of Calminians today who would agree with the last four points that I've just, the last four texts, but they still want to argue that faith is the means or the cause of the new birth. I submit they're in deep water here with John. The new birth that brings about our believing also brings about our loving. As a child loves his father, he loves the children whom his father begets. Anyone who loves God must also love God's children. Just as faith and love are related, so love and obedience are likewise related. And they're so closely related that obedience defines love. Look in verse 3. This is the love of God that we what? keep His commandments. The connection between love for God and obedience serves here as a protection against thinking of love, now follow me, as some emotional feelings about God. Love is obeying what God says is right. That's a loving person. A lot of people get the cart before the horse and they say, well, I've got to have the feeling before I can do what's right. No, you do what's right and you may get the feeling. I think last week we told you about the fellow that didn't want to go to church because he didn't feel like it. He wanted to know what I thought he ought to do. I said, go to church. That's love. It's love. I hear about the fellow that Sunday morning came and he was in bed and his mother came and woke him up and said, son, aren't you going to church today? He said, no, I'm not going today. He said, but son, it's right to go to church. The son said, give me two reasons, mother, why I ought to go to church. Mother said, all right, the first one is you're 45 years old. The second one is you're the pastor. You do not let your emotions define your level of obedience. This is love that you obey. You do what is right. And, beloved, if that ever falls into your thinking, it will help you do things for people that otherwise are offensive to you. You'll start finding an affinity. How many missionaries have gone to the field not having an affinity for the people to whom they have been called to minister, and then after getting there and doing what is right, they begin to have affections for those people? True love acts to obey God's commands. When true love is acting, God's commands are not burdensome. They're not grievous. When God enters into our lives at the point of the new birth, he sheds his love abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. When we believe on the name of God's Son, then his yoke becomes easy and is what? His burden light. Matthew 11.30, living the life of faith and love becomes our delight and we discover the freedom and liberty for which we have been seeking. This sets us free, folks. It doesn't put us in bondage. If love for God is expressed in keeping God's commandments, then how can the believer keep God's commandments? In verse 4, John traces his ability to obey God back to its origin in the new birth. There is an overcoming, conquering power in regenerating grace. It imparts a faith which looks to Christ for the victory, not oneself. You cannot keep God's commandments in old Adam's ability. But you must look out of yourself to the new ability that God has implanted in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and our divine union with him. That power flows from him to us to enable us to do what God says is right. John's readers had overcome the power of the false prophets. Chapter 4, verse 4, they had also overcome the love of Satan's world system. Chapter 2, verses 13 through 17. And they had been translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of what? God's dear Son. Some Christians, in closing, though, see their trials and temptations as indicating to them that their victory is incomplete. That if they just had an absence of all these trials and troubles, then they could know with victorious Christians. And so they fall into the deeper Christian life, teaching that if you are still struggling with trials and temptations and sin, then you're not a victorious Christian. I would have you note again, what John is saying of the new birth describes all Christians, not just some. You're either in or you're not. But this is not an accurate assessment that if you are getting beat up by the devil this morning that your trials and tribulations are indicating that you're just a weak, defeated Christian. This is not an accurate assessment. Paul would say in Romans 8, verses 36 and 37, as it is written, for thy sake we are what? Killed all the day long. Does that sound like you? We are accounted as sheep for the slaughtered. That sound like you? They and all these things were more than conquerors through him that loveth." And that's just not Paul. That's all creatures. If you understand that your struggles and trials are sent by God and that when you are weak, then you are strong. Faith does not exempt us from the struggles or the pain which comes with the struggles. But it assures us, Brother Asa, of a certain outcome of victory. If God be for us, who can be against us? When facing the cross, Jesus could say these words in John 16.33, In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. This is his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane as he had gone through these agonies. I've overcome it. John's argument has now gone full circle. Each of the three tests have been related to each other, and as a result of God's beginning activity, all true Christians have a correct view of who Jesus is. They love both the Father and his children and keep his commands. They're enabled to keep his commands because they overcome the world. and their victory over the world is due to their faith in their Lord who has already won the battle. Faith, love and obedience are the three evidences of salvation. Remove any of these evidences and one fails the test. So true believers will see evidence to some degree of each of these in their lives and will confidently look forward in hope for the perfection of each of these in their lives to come after their lives in this world are over. Faith is the victory which overcomes the world. I'll leave you with a closing question. Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ that God has sent into the world to be the Savior of sinners? Do you believe that? Do you enjoy serving and doing things for true Christians. You like to be around true Christians. Would it please your heart that when your father says, do this, that you find yourself, I want to do that? Faith, love, and obedience is the evidence or the assurance that one is a true Christian. Whether you get bubbly feelings and just gush all over others, or whether you're somewhat withdrawn, or whether you get those goosebumps when you sing certain songs and you hear somebody pray, or whether you just sit there and, boy, this is wonderful, but you don't have any emotional sensations, don't judge that as the evidence of true Christianity. Faith, love, obedience. I love the Lord. I believe Jesus. And I want to do what God says for me.